Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

In light of all the Lance Armstrong talk that is going around, I couldn't help but think about the "win at all costs" philosophy that keeps our society driven to reach the standards of others. Certainly, we feel pressure to please others or meet expectations and then we feel like failures if we come up short. The pressure that we put on ourselves is often unbearable yet we do it all the time. Beyond competitive athletes, our society is built on standards. Living a certain way, acting a certain way, looking a certain way. The interesting thing is that we all live in our own community bubble so depending on who we surround ourselves with on a day-to-day basis, that is our standard. Live in a runner or triathlete bubble? Perhaps you are constantly comparing your body, training schedule, paces or performance to those who are better than you. Live in a wealthy bubble? Perhaps your lifestyle isn't "good enough" for your neighbors or coworkers. Live in an...

If you are currently training for a triathlon event and wanting to improve your swimming, the most important thing you can do right now is to get into the water. Depending on where you live (weather), pool times and accessibly and overall motivation to jump into water, only to swim the exact same distance, over and over again for x-amount of time, it's likely that many of you will put off swimming until you start to freak out that it is time to start working on your swimming. As a coach, I call this fear-based-training and it isn't limited to the triathlete who is not comfortable in the water. Fear based training also applies to individuals who do an excessive amount of mileage or volume on the weeks leading up to a race because of the fear of not feeling prepared and thus, the need to "test" themselves that they are physically prepared for race day. Sadly, they end up wasting their best performance in training and end up feeling overtrained, on the verge of injur...

Two weeks ago I braved 20 degree temps in Utah at an altitude of 8000-11000 feet. I stayed extremely active in the snow, both on my board and a few times on my butt. The Oakley Women product testing summit was amazing and I had such a great time stepping outside of my comfort zone.       The following weekend (1/11-1/14) I braved even colder temperatures and traveled to Iowa to speak to the Missouri River Runners group for their yearly banquet. Despite living in Kentucky for the first 21 years of my life, I have become quite soft in the cold..or as we like to say in Florida - when it gets "down to 40 degrees outside". An average temperature of around 10 degrees each day, with a few flurries and a few gusts of wind making the wind chill drop below zero.     My talk was on "Common mistakes made by runners: train smarter to reach success faster." I met so many new people and got to know some of my Trimarni Nutrition athletes (from the web)...

When in Utah, I was inspired by one of our dinners at the Oakley Women house. It was pasta night and we had a variety of pasta's for every type of dietary preference. We had regular lasagna w/ meat, gluten free/vegetarian lasagna and spaghetti squash lasagna. All but the meat lasagna, I sampled them all and really enjoyed my first taste of spaghetti squash lasagna. I just love the flavors of pizza and you can't go wrong with cheese and sauce so I figured this would be a great creation to try at home. Wow - it did not disappoint us and Karel absolutely loved it (aka "husband approved"). Feel free to switch up the veggies and use your choice of protein. I had a super busy day yesterday - non stop work after my morning interval run so I tried to keep this recipe super simple. In the morning I had planned for this for dinner so I prepared the squash earlier in the day (I work at home when I am not in the hospital) so that it would be easy for preparing, later in the da...

A few weeks ago I spoke to a group of half marathon runners in the Jacksonville area on the topic of daily and sport nutrition. This is not my normal crowd as these individuals are not running for PR's...and they are not allowed to drink. Some of them can't even drive yet. That's right....almost 200 High School kiddos in the Jacksonville area (divided among 5 schools) are training for their first or second half marathon -  26.2 with Donna .  If you are not familiar with Marathon High, it is a non profit program that encourages high school students to develop self-respect, confidence and healthy lifestyles through training for and running a 13.1 half marathon.  Here's a bit more about the program: "We are a proud partner with the Galloway Training Program and the 26.2 with Donna Foundation. This is a free, after-school running club open to teens of all backgrounds and abilities in grades 9-12. The program is non-competitive, which means speed does n...

  It was sad to leave my Oakley Women friends (family) but I am back at home now and filled with memories. There's nothing better than a trip to get you excited about coming home with ideas, dreams and goals and the inspiration to start making things happen. To get me back into the routine, Campy wasted no time for his daily tummy rubs.  While in Utah, I enjoyed a change of my routine and trying new foods. I was sure to not skimp on my protein so every morning I enjoyed an omelet filled w/ veggies alongside toast w/ PB.  Thankfully, the altitude didn't get to me when snowboarding or when sleeping but I made sure when I was running on the treadmill on Sunday morning, that I didn't go by my normal "at sea level" pace. I was sure to stay extra hydrated while in Utah as we were about 8,000 feet up and I also tried to do the best I could w/ fruits and veggies, which was easy as Oakley Women had a wonderful dinner prepared for us every evening. When I go...

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